Ah well the classic references on this topic are Katie Hafner's stuff on the WELL community in the SF-Bay area. Some of the online members met offline - with some weird results. . . way before chat rooms became popular via WWW. The article: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.05/ff_well_pr.html The book: The Well: A Story of Love, Death & Real Life in the Seminal Online Community (2001). I guess our annual meetings have a bit of the online-offline dynamic . . . . Denise Denise N. Rall, PhD candidate, School of Environ. Science, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 2480 Sustainable Forestry Mentoring Coordinator & Internet Researcher Room T2.12, +61 (0)2 6620 3577 Tuesdays or Mobile 0438 233 344 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/rsm/staff/pages/drall/index.html